PURGATORY 


my  HENRY  GREY  GRAHAM,  M.A. 


The  Catholic  Teaching 

Mistakes 
and  Perversions 

The  Proof 


New  York,  N.  Y. 

THE  PAULIST  PRESS 

401  West  59fh  Street 


PRINTED  AND  PUBLISHED  IN  THE  U.  S.  A. 
BY  THE  PAXJLIST  PRESS,  NEW  YORK,  N.  Y. 


PURGATORY 


By 

HENRY  GREY  GRAHAM,  M.A. 


New  York 

THE  PAULIST  PRESS 
401  West  S9th  Street 


Copyright,  1914,  by 

The  Missionary  Society  oe  St.  Paul  the  Apostle 
IN  THE  State  of  New  York 


F'TJR.Gr^TOR.Y. 


may  as  well  say  at  the  outset  that  we  begin 
by  assuming  certain  principles  as  universally 
admitted.  These  principles  we  shall  state,  but 
shall  not  stop  to  prove,  (i)  For  example,  we 
suppose  that  all  readers  of  this  pamphlet  ad¬ 
mit  that  the  soul  exists  in  perfect  consciousness  after  the 
death  of  the  body,  that  there  is  no  break  in  the  continuity 
of  its  existence,  no  destruction  of  the  man’s  individuality. 
I  am  taking  for  granted  that  as  Christians  they  believe 
that  death  is  merely  the  liberation  of  the  soul  from  the 
body,  and  that,  freed  from  its  earthly  tenement,  the  soul 
continues  to  exist  alone  with  its  memory,  its  understand¬ 
ing,  its  will,  as  before.  (2)  I  take  for  granted  that  this 
truth  excludes  any  idea  of  sleep  or  unconsciousness,  still 
more  of  any  annihilation  on  the  part  of  the  disembodied 
soul.  There  is  no  such  condition  as  that:  it  is  a  pagan 
conception.  Rather  are  we  led  to  suppose  that  the  soul’s 
faculties  of  knowing,  and  remembering,  and  understand¬ 
ing,  and  willing  are  quickened  and  purified  by  entering 
upon  a  purely  spiritual  state.  (3)  Consequently  the  ex¬ 
pression  “  prayers  for  the  dead  ”  is  not  altogether  happy, 
but  is  rather  misleading.  The  holy  souls  are  not  dead, 
but  living.  It  should  be  “  prayers  for  the  departed.” 
No  soul  once  created  ever  dies,  in  the  sense  of  being  ex^ 
tinguished  like  a  candle.  The  only  death  that  is  possible 
is  eternal  separation  from  God  its  Creator,  by  loss  of 
sanctifying  grace,  which  is  the  life  of  the  soul.  (4) 
Lastly,  as  regards  the  name  “  purgatory.”  Perhaps  it  is 
strongly  resented  by  many  to  whom  the  name  suggests 
weird  pictures  of  a  fiery  furnace  in  which  the  bodies  of 
men  and  women  are  tumbling  over  one  another,  scorched 
by  flames  and  writhing  in  agony.  Needless  to  say  such 
scenes  are  merely  intended  to  teach  in  a  pictorial  and 


4  Purgatory 

striking  manner  the  fact  of  suffering  in  the  intermediate 
state,  and  suffering  by  fire.  Purgatory  is  a  word  formed 
from  the  Latin,  and  signifies  a  place  of  purification  and 
cleansing,  and  has  been  found  a  convenient  term  to  de¬ 
note  the  place  and  state  of  certain  disembodied  souls. 
But  the  word  itself  is  of  little  importance,  and  ought  not 
to  annoy  or  repel  anyone.  The  important  thing  is  the 
doctrinal  truth  conveyed  by  the  word.  To  Catholics  the 
expression  is  dear  and  precious,  because  they  know  what 
it  means.  To  Protestants  it  is  hateful,  simply  because 
they  do  not  know  what  it  means,  or  rather  because  they 
think  it  means  something  which  Catholics  know  very  well 
is  both  grossly  false  and  fantastically  absurd. 

The  Catholic  Teaching. 

Now,  as  clearness  and  exactness  of  definition  are  absO' 
lutely  essential  for  the  proper  understanding  of  this,  as  of 
every  other  religious  question,  let  us  first  see  precisely 
what  the  Church  teaches  as  matter  of  faith  about  purga¬ 
tory.  Her  principal  de  fide  decrees  on  the  subject — ^de¬ 
crees,  i.  e.,  declaring  that  the  doctrine  set  forth  has  been 
revealed  by  God,  and  is  therefore  binding  on  the  con¬ 
science  under  pain  of  heresy — are  those  of  the  Council  of 
Trent  (sess.  25),  ‘‘  that  there  is  a  purgatory,  and  that  the 
souls  there  detained  are  assisted  by  the  suffrages  of  the 
faithful,  but  especially  by  the  most  acceptable  sacrifice 
of  the  altar,’^  and  the  Council  of  Florence  which  had  pre¬ 
viously  (a.  d.  1439)  defined,  “  If  men  have  died  penitent 
in  the  love  of  God,  and  before  they  have  made  satisfac- 
tion  by  fruits  worthy  of  penance  for  sins  of  omission  and 
of  commission,  their  souls  are  purified  after  death  by  the 
pains  of  purgatory ;  and  to  the  relief  of  these  pains  avail 
the  suffrages  of  the  faithful,  sacrifices  of  Masses,  prayers, 
alms,  and  other  offices  of  piety.”  The  Penny  Catechism 
of  Christian  Doctrine  puts  the  whole  teaching  simply 
thus  (under  Article  ix.  of  the  Creed)  :  “  Purgatory  is  a 
place  where  souls  suffer  for  a  time  after  death  on  account 
of  their  sins.”  It  will  be  noticed  at  once  how  guarded 
and  exact  is  the  Church’s  doctrine  on  the  subject.  All 
we  are  compelled  to  believe  as  part  of  the  faith  is  (i) 
that  there  is  a  purgatory,  (^)  souls  suffer  there  after 


t'urgatory  5 

death  for  their  sins,  and  (3)  we  can  help  to  relieve  them. 
And  this,  be  it  remembered,  is  the  professed  belief  not 
only  of  the  Catholic  Church,  East  and  West,  but  also  of 
the  Greek  and  Oriental  schismatic  Churches,  bodies  now 
unhappily  separated  from  Rome,  but  at  the  time  of  the 
Council  of  Florence  forming  part  of  her  communion. 

Nevertheless,  in  addition  to  these  simple  dogmatic 
statements,  and  more  or  less  naturally  and  necessarily 
flowing  from  them,  there  are  other  points  of  belief  held  in 
general  by  Catholics  concerning  the  purgatorial  state, 
though  not  categorically  deflned  as  articles  of  faith,  (i) 
For  example,  it  is  perfectly  certain  that  the  holy  souls  are 
saved ;  they  are  in  a  state  of  grace,  of  friendship  with 
God,  otherwise  they  could  never  have  entered  purgatory 
at  all.  And  not  only  so,  but  they  are  aware  of  it;  they 
knew  it  at  the  moment  of  the  particular  judgment,  which 
each  one  received  at  death;  and  this,  we  may  believe,  is 
the  greatest  consolation  amid  their  suffering.  (2) 
Not  only  are  they  in  a  state  of  grace,  but  they  are 
confirmed  in  grace ;  there  is  no  possibility  of  their  ever 
losing  it.  They  cannot  sin  in  the  least  degree ;  there  is 
no  source  or  cause  of  sin  present  to  them.  (3)  As  to  the 
nature  of  the  punishments  of  purgatory,  it  is  certain  at  all 
events  that  the  holy  souls  suffer  the  pain  of  loss.  This 
consists  in  their  being  debarred  for  a  time  through  their 
own  fault  from  enjoying  the  vision  of  God  in  heaven — 
God  Who  is  the  supreme  object  of  their  love,  and  Whom 
they  ardently  desire  to  see.  This  suffering  is  undoubtedly 
keener  than  any  other.  Cardinal  Newman,  in  his  beauti¬ 
ful  poem,  The  Dream  of  Gerontius,  pathetically  describes 
the  agony  of  the  soul  as  torn  in  two  directions — on  the 
one  side,  eagerly  longing  to  fly  to  God,  its  last  end,  and 
yet  kept  back  by  the  consciousness  of  its  imperfections, 
which  it  feels  render  it  as  yet  unworthy  to  enter  heaven. 

“  And  these  two  pains,  so  counter  and  so  keen — • 

The  longing  for  Him  when  thou  seest  Him  not; 

The  shame  of  self  at  thought  of  seeing  Him — 

Will  be  thy  veriest,  sharpest  purgatory.” 

(4)  Further,  it  is  the  common  teaching  that  the  holy 
souls  undergo  some  pain  of  sense,  some  positive  suffering 


6 


Purgatory 

through  the  application  of  fire,  and  it  is  most  generally 
believed  that  it  is  a  real  material  fire,  though  such  has 
never  been  defined  as  a  dogma  of  faith.  The  Greeks  have 
never  shared  this  belief,  holding  for  the  most  part  that  the 
sufferings  are  purely  spiritual  and  subjective;  and  it  is 
but  right  to  add  that  the  Church  has  not  condemned  this 
view. 

(5)  As  to  the  intensity  of  these  punishments,  nothing  is 
known  or  taught  for  certain.  There  is  the  severe  opinion 
held  by  St.  Thomas,  that  the  least  pain  of  purgatory  is 
greater  than  the  greatest  pain  of  this  life ;  and  there  is 
the  milder  view  favored  by  St.  Bonaventure,  that  the 
greatest  pain  of  purgatory  is  greater  than  the  greatest 
pain  of  this  life.  But  whichever  way  the  truth  lies — 
and  probably  in  this  world  we  can  never  know  for  certain, 
as  we  are  dealing  with  an  order  of  things  altogether  dif¬ 
ferent  from  our  own,  and  pure  spirits  are  not  under  or¬ 
dinary  conditions  of  suffering — this  much  at  least  is  un¬ 
disputed,  that  the  sufferings  of  the  imprisoned  souls  are 
very  bitter  and  severe,  and  that  they  will  differ  in  differ¬ 
ent  persons  according  to  the  debt  of  punishment  to  be 
paid.  Yet  we  may  be  sure  that  the  sufferers  never  com¬ 
plain,  or  think  their  lot  too  hard,  or  wish  for  an  end  to  it, 
but  are  wholly  reconciled  to  the  will  of  God  and  recognize 
His  justice  in  their  punishment,  and  even  rejoice  in  their 
tribulation,  like  the  martyrs  in  the  midst  of  the  flames, 
assured  that  these  will  ultimately  conduct  them  to  the 
BeatifixC  Vision. 

(6)  Where  purgatory  is  we  know  not ;  neither  can  any 
man  tell  the  length  of  time  during  which  a  soul  may  be 
detained  there.  Only  this  we  know,  that  it  will  be  pro¬ 
portioned  to  the  measure  of  sin  or  the  punishment  due. 
That  it  is  possible,  however,  for  a  soul  to  suffer  for  a  long 
period  of  time,  as  we  count  time,  is  proved  from  the  fact 
that  the  Church  sanctions  the  practice  of  offering  Masses 
for  a  soul  for  many  years,  and  even  generations ;  but,  of 
course,  for  all  souls  purgatory  will  cease  at  the  Day  of 
Judgment,  as  our  Lord  teaches  us  in  the  twenty-fifth  chap¬ 
ter  of  St.  Matthew’s  Gospel. 

(7)  It  will  be  seen,  then  (to  sum  up),  that  only  those 
souls  go  to  purgatory  that  have  either  “  departed  this 


Purgatory  7 

life  in  venial  sin,  or  that  have  not  fully  paid  the  debt  of 
temporal  punishment  due  to  those  sins  of  which  the  guilt 
has  been  forgiven.”  Temporal  punishment  is  defined  as 
“  punishment  that  will  have  an  end  either  in  this  world  or 
in  the  world  to  come,”  and  so  is  distinguished  from  eter¬ 
nal  punishment,  which  is  hell.  The  only  way  the  Holy 
Souls  can  discharge  their  debt  is  by  suffering  on  their 
own  part,  or  by  being  assisted  by  their  friends  in  the 
ways  aforementioned.  Strictly  speaking,  these  souls 
can  do  naught  but  suffer;  and  even  their  sufferings  are 
not  meritorious  or  satisfactory,  in  the  theological  sense 
of  the  words.  They  can  merit  or  satisfy  no  more;  the 
time  for  that  ended  at  death.  They  can  do  nothing  to 
help  themselves ;  and  so  they  look  to  us  to  assist  them 
in  discharging  their  debt,  even  to  the  last  farthing. 

(8)  And  the  reader  will  not  fail  to  observe  that  the 
Catholic  doctrine  knows  nothing  of  that  hazy  and  il¬ 
logical  idea  as  to  “  imperfections  ”  and  “  flaws  and  cav¬ 
ities  ”  of  one’s  nature  being  the  subject-matter  of  the 
purification,  and  as  to  the  “  perfecting  and  developing  of 
the  spiritual  nature,”  and  the  “  modelling  of  an  unshaped 
character,”  and  “growth  and  advancement  and  progress” 
that  is  supposed  to  take  place  in  the  Intermediate  State. 
Imperfections  and  defects  and  cavities  and  weaknesses 
and  ignorance  are  not  culpable  or  punishable  unless  they 
are  voluntarily  caused  by  the  person’s  own  fault,  when 
they  partake,  to  a  more  or  less  degree,  of  sin;  and  then 
only  could  they  be  brought  within  the  range  of  purga¬ 
tory.  Unfortunately,  we  find  in  Protestant  books  on  this 
subject  such  expressions  as  “  the  purifying  process  be¬ 
tween  death  and  judgment”  {i.  e.,  the  General  Judgment), 
the  “  spiritual  cleansing  and  purification,”  the  wiping  out 
of  disfigurements,  and  the  “  cleansing  ordeal,”  not  only 
applied  to  the  removal  of  sin  and  its  consequences  (which 
is  correct),  but  also  made  to  include  “growth  and  prog¬ 
ress  and  development  of  character  ”  and  the  “  perfect¬ 
ing  of  the  spirit  ”  and  the  “  training  of  the  mind  to  higher 
knowledge  and  the  spirit  to  loftier  gracefulness,”  and  the 
“  mounting  the  higher  rungs  of  the  ladder  of  knowledge,” 
and  the  “  purging  of  our  spiritual  eyesight  and  training 
in  a  clearer  atmosphere,”  and  much  more  to  the  same 


Purgatory 

effect — all  which  is  utterly  outside  the  function  of  purga¬ 
torial  discipline.  These  writers,  whether  Lutheran  or 
Anglican,  mix  up  two  things,  imperfections  and  sins,  in 
the  most  gratuitous  and  undiscerning  manner,  and  the 
vagueness  of  their  language  fitly  cloaks  the  obscurity  of 
their  thought.  They  will  speak  of  “  Roman  perversions  ” 
of  the  primitive  doctrine,  and  of  the  many  subordinate 
evils  which  have  made  the  Roman  doctrine  of  purgatory 
a  byword,”  and  characterize  it  as  “  materialistic,  revolt¬ 
ing,  childish,  and  calculated  to  do  immeasurable  harm 
and  yet  we  shall  see  that  Rome’s  conception  of  purgatory 
is  the  only  logical  and  unassailable  one,  and  hers  is  the 
only  doctrine  that  fits  in,  not  only  with  Scripture  and 
tradition,  but  even  with  reason  and  common-sense.  Her 
teaching  on  this,  as  on  all  other  dogmas  of  the  faith,  is 
clear,  intelligible,  and  precise,  whilst  the  opinions  of 
heretics  are  nebulous,  confused,  and  contradictory,  in  con¬ 
flict  at  once  with  a  true  philosophy  of  man’s  nature  and 
the  theology  revealed  by  Jesus  Christ. 

Mistakes  and  Perversions. 

From  all  that  has  been  said,  it  will  be  seen  at  a  glance 
how  simple  and  how  guarded  the  Catholic  doctrine  is, 
and  how  many  fantastic  and  fallacious  ideas  about  it  are 
at  once  brushed  away.  For  example,  (a)  we  can  only 
laugh  at  the  gross  notions  some  ignorant  people  seem 
to  have  about  the  bodies  of  any  persons  being  in  purga¬ 
tory,  or  about  the  priest  extorting  Mass  after  Mass  out 
of  his  poor  dupes  on  the  plea  of  getting  their  friend’s 
body  out  of  the  dark  prison  leg  by  leg  and  arm  by  arm. 
Of  course  there  are  no  bodies,  but  only  souls,  in  purga¬ 
tory.  (b)  Again,  some  seem  to  imagine  Catholics  be¬ 
lieve  that  all  must  go  to  purgatory  after  death.  This  is 
truly  a  quaint  mistake.  There  are  three  states  or  places 
after  the  separation  of  the  soul  from  the  body  at  death, 
and  into  one  or  other  of  these  the  soul  of  every  man  must 
go — heaven,  hell,  or  purgatory.  Into  which  he  will 
enter  depends  entirely  upon  the  state  of  his  soul.  Some 
may  go  straight  to  heaven  or  straight  to  hell ;  others  may 
go  to  purgatory;  but  which  go  into  which,  the  Church 
never  claims  to  determine.  Certainly,  she  will  tell  you 


Purgatory  9 

without  doubt  or  hesitation  what  precise  conditions  are 
required  for  entrance  into  each  particular  place.  A  man 
in  mortal  sin  goes  at  once  to  hell.  A  man  in  venial  sin, 
or  with  some  punishment  still  due  to  sin,  goes  to  purga¬ 
tory.  A  man  without  either  goes  straight  to  heaven. 
But  whether  these  conditions,  or  what  conditions,  are 
found  in  any  single  individual  at  death,  she  does  not  pre¬ 
tend  infallibly  to  judge.  Not  even  the  priest  who  dealt 
with  the  soul  as  confessor  in  its  last  moments  could  tell 
for  certain.  That  is  hidden  from  man  and  known  to 
God  alone. 

(r)  Once  more,  the  Catholic  doctrine  has  no  room  for 
that  novel  conception,  popular  in  some  quarters,  that 
there  is  a  probation  for  certain  souls  after  death,  a 
“  preaching  of  the  Gospel  in  the  intermediate  state,”  and 
a  chance  given  to  the  heathen  of  being  saved  which  they 
never  had  on  earth ;  nay,  even  a  second  chance  for  those 
not  heathen,  who  made  a  bad  use  of  their  opportunities 
in  their  earth-life.  All  this  straining  after  “  the  larger 
hope,”  and  the  “  vast  possibilities  of  the  intermediate 
state  ”  is  nothing  but  the  merest  speculation  and  the 
rankest  heresy.  It  rests  primarily  upon  far-fetched  and 
inadmissible  interpretations  of  a  few  texts  of  Scripture 
(such  as  I  Peter  iii.  18-20).  It  is  unsupported  by  tradi¬ 
tion,  and  condemned  by  the  constant  teaching  of  the 
Church  Catholic.  It  is  founded  upon  a  false  theology 
concerning  God’s  will  to  save,  and  His  provisions  for 
saving,  every  soul  upon  earth ;  namely,  the  theology 
which  affirms  that  there  can  be  no  possibility  of  salvation 
for  those  who  never  hear  Christ’s  name.^  The  sup¬ 
porters  of  this  doctrine  argue  that  since  millions  die 
without  so  much  as  having  heard  any  mention  of  Christ’s 
name,  God  must  let  them  hear  that  name  and  give  them 
a  chance  of  salvation  in  the  next  world.  This 
theory  is  not  only,  as  we  have  said,  a  pure  imag¬ 
ination,  but  it  is  entirely  unnecessary  in  the  true  scheme 
of  theology,  which  is  that  of  the  Catholic  Church,  which 
is  that  of  Jesus  Christ.  A  man’s  destiny  is  fixed  irre¬ 
versibly  at  death.  “  In  the  place  where  the  tree  falleth, 
there  it  shall  be  ”  (Eccles.  xi.  3,  A.  V.).  At  the  moment 

'Chambers,  Our  Life  After  Death,  p.  151. 


10  Purgatory 

a  man  dies,  he  is  either  saved  or  lost:  for  at  that  mo¬ 
ment  his  soul  appears  before  God  to  receive  its  par¬ 
ticular  judgment.  “  It  is  appointed  unto  men  once  to 
die,  but  after  this  the  judgment”  (Heb.  ix.  27,  A.  V.). 
But  before  he  dies,  he  (whether  Christian  or  non-Chris¬ 
tian)  has  had  his  chance  of  salvation.  It  is  a  dogma 
of  faith  that  Almighty  God  offers  to  all  men  grace  suf¬ 
ficient  to  save  their  souls  in  this  world,  for  He  is  “  not 
willing  that  any  should  perish,  but  that  all  should  come 
to  repentance”  (2  Peter  iii.  9,  A.  V.).  If  men  refuse  or 
neglect  to  partake  of  the  grace  that  flows  like  a  river 
all  about  them,  the  sin  and  the  loss  and  the  damnation  is 
their  own.  Hence  there  is  neither  sense  nor  truth  in  the 
supposition  that  after  putting  off  the  body  of  flesh,  they 
may  again  be  put  on  trial.  “  Behold,  now  is  the  ac¬ 
cepted  time ;  behold,  now  is  the  day  of  salvation  ”  (2 
Cor.  vi.  2,  A.  V.) — now  or  never. 

The  Proof. 

This,  then,  being  the  teaching  of  Rome  on  the  subject 
of  purgatory,  the  question  naturally  arises.  How  do  you 
prove  it  to  be  true?  has  it  been  revealed  by  God?  is  it  a 
doctrine  taught  by  Jesus  Christ  and  His  Apostles?  We 
shall  proceed  to  show  that  the  doctrine  of  purgatory  is 
not  only  a  Christian  truth,  but  is  a  necessary  truth  as 
well.  There  is,  and  cannot  but  be,  a  purgatory  ;  and  we 
shall  draw  our  proofs  from  the  threefold  authority  of 
Reason,  Scripture,  and  Tradition.  To  begin  with: 

(A)  Reason. 

Our  own  reasoning  about  God’s  justice,  about  sin,  and 
about  punishment  for  sin  convinces  us  that  there  must  be 
some  such  place.  Take  a  man,  for  example,  who  at  death 
is  fit  for  neither  heaven  nor  hell,  a  man,  let  us  suppose, 
who  dies,  not,  certainly,  as  the  enemy  of  God,  not  in  mortal 
sin,  with  no  grievous,  deliberate,  unrepented  crime  upon 
his  soul ;  yet  not  perfectly  free  from  those  smaller  sins  in¬ 
to  which  the  best  of  people  will  sometimes  fall.  He  can¬ 
not  as  yet  enter  heaven ;  that  is  certain,  for  nothing  defiled 
shall  enter  there  (Rev.  xxi.  27).  Yet  he  is  assuredly  not 


Purgatory  1 1 

bad  enough  for  the  torments  of  hell,  for  I  am  supposing 
he  is  free  from  deadly  sin.  What  is  the  only  proper  place 
for  that  man’s  soul  ?  Purgatory,  wherein  he. will  be  puri¬ 
fied  and  cleansed.  He  is  not  yet  fitted,  and  feels  he  is  not 
fitted,  to  endure  the  Beatific  Vision;  he  would  not  wish 
for  it.  But  at  this  point  we  may  expect  to  hear  the  voice 
of  the  objector. 

1.  “If  he  is  a  Catholic,  all  his  sins,  great  and  small,  will 
have  been  forgiven,  either  by  confession,  or  by  an  act  of 
perfect  contrition  where  confession  was  not  possible.”  I 
answer.  If  so,  then  undoubtedly  there  will  be  no  venial  sin 
left  to  be  forgiven.  But  this  is  not  my  case.  All  Catho¬ 
lics  do  not  die  so.  I  am  supposing,  and  it  is  not  hard  to 
suppose,  the  case  of  a  man  who  has  had  no  time  or 
chance  to  make  either  a  confession  or  an  act  of  contrition, 
as,  for  example,  in  sudden  death;  what  of  such  an  one? 
He  must  certainly  obtain  remission  of  his  sins  “  in  the 
world  to  come,”  the  intermediate  state,  to  which  our  Lord 
alludes  (in  Matt.  xii.  32)  as  a  place  of  forgiveness. 

2.  But  our  departed  brotner  was  a  Protestant,  perhaps ; 
does  that  make  any  difference?  “  He  was  saved  by  faith ; 
he  made  his  peace  with  the  Lord ;  the  Blood  of  Christ 
cleansed  him  from  all  sin.”  These  are  comfortable  words, 
albeit  vague.  But  what  exactly  do  they  involve  when 
analyzed?  That  perfect  sorrow  will  cancel  the  guilt  and 
stain  of  sin  in  a  Protestant  as  well  as  in  a  Catholic,  of 
course  we  all  admit;  but  suppose  the  Protestant  dies  not 
sorry  for  some  venial  sin,  what  then?  suppose  he  still  has 
affection  for  it?  suppose  (and  this  will  apply  equally  to 
a  Catholic  in  regard  to  his  confession  and  contrition),  sup¬ 
pose  he  had  committed  some  lesser  sin  and  was 
never  sorry  for  it,  or  was  careless  or  neglectful 
or  indifferent  about  it?  Will  Almighty  God  forgive  us 
unless  we  are  genuinely  sorry?  Assuredly  not;  we  are 
taught  the  very  contrary.  “  A  broken  and  a  contrite 
heart,  indeed.  He  will  not  despise ;  ”  but  the  Blood  of 
Christ  cleanseth  the  soul  of  no  man  who  is  not  contrite. 

3.  Those,  therefore,  who  will  not  admit  an  intermediate 
state  are  driven  to  take  refuge  in  the  supposition  (for  it  is 
nothing  more)  that  the  man’s  sins  are  washed  away  in 
some  mysterious  manner ^at  the  moment  of  death;  that  be- 


12  Purgatory 

fore  he  draws  his  last  breath,  or  with  his  last  breath,  his 
sins  and  faults  are  cancelled  and  utterly  done  away,  and 
he  steps  straight  into  the  Heavenly  Jerusalem.  But  let  us 
calmly  examine  the  psychological  and  theological  accuracy 
of  such  a  theory.  Here  is  a  man,  let  us  say,  with  a  small 
sin  upon  his  soul  unrepented  of — sufficient  to  bar  his  en¬ 
trance  into  heaven,  but  not  sufficient  to  commit  him  to 
hell;  how  can  the  mere  act  of  dying  wipe  out  that  sin? 
The  act  of  dying  is  a  physical,  material  fact;  it  simply 
means  the  soul  leaving  the  body ;  that  and  nothing  more. 
Death  can  only  touch  the  body  of  man ;  it  cannot  change 
his  spiritual  condition.  I  mean  that  the  condition  of  a 
man’s  soul  as  regards  its  sin  and  its  grace,  is  no  more 
changed  by  going  out  of  the  body  than  your  body,  gentle 
reader,  is  changed  by  going  out  of  the  house.  The  gasping 
out  of  one’s  breath,  the  extinction  of  the  spark  of  life,  the 
flight  of  the  soul  from  its  temple  of  flesh — where  has  God 
taught  us  that  this  is  invested  with  the  power  of  instan¬ 
taneously  blotting  out  the  guilt  and  stain  of  sin,  and  of 
transforming  the  sinner  suddenly  into  a  saint,  ready  to  en¬ 
ter  at  once  upon  the  Beatific  Vision  ?  The  idea  is  fictitious 
and  irrational.  “  This  theory,”  says  the  late  Dr.  Luckock, 
“  invests  a  mere  physical  process  with  the  sanctifying  in¬ 
fluence  which  can  only  be  exercised  through  the  operation 
of  the  will.”  Moral  perfection  and  spiritual  cleansing  can¬ 
not  so  be  accomplished.  It  is  by  the  voluntary  coopera¬ 
tion  of  the  person  with  the  Grace  of  God  that  such  a  re¬ 
sult  is  reached,  not  certainly  by  any  unseen,  mysterious, 
and  almost  magical  agency,  as  in  the  mere  act  of  dying. 
“To  state,”  says  Rev.  A.  Chambers,  though  he  uses  the 
illustration  to  prove  a  different  contention,  “  to  state  that  a 
repentant  murderer,  the  moment  after  execution,  will  have 
a  character  devoid  of  fault  and  a  spirit  replete  with  grace, 
is  as  contrary  to  sense  as  saying  that  the  Israelites,  as  soon 
as  they  had  crossed  the  Red  Sea,  reached  the  Land  of 
Promise.  There  is  no  more  reason  for  thinking  that  the 
work  of  perfecting  can  be  brought  about  suddenly  by  the 
disrupting  hand  of  death,  than  there  is  for  supposing  that 
the  cracking  of  the  shell  will  make  the  newly  hatched  chick 
a  full-grown  fowl.”  In  the  case  of  a  man.  Catholic  or 
non-Catholic,  dying  burdened  with  the  guilt  of  venial  sin, 


Purgatory  13 

we  hold  that  there  can  be  but  one  destination,  at  least  im¬ 
mediately,  for  him.  Neither  heaven  nor  hell  is  “  his  own 
place,”  but  purgatory,  where  the  guilt  will  be  removed  by 
the  perfect  act  of  charity  which,  according  to  St.  Thomas, 
the  soul  makes  on  its  release  from  the  body.  Justice  de¬ 
mands  that  not  until  the  guilt  and  stain  and  punishment  of 
sin  have  been  completely  wiped  out  can  the  soul  be  ad¬ 
mitted  to  the  ineffable  Presence  of  God,  Who  is  “  of  purer 
eyes  than  to  behold  evil  and  cannot  look  on  iniquity  ” 
(Hab.  i.  13,  A.V.). 

4.  And  here  we  come  upon  another  argument  suggested 
by  reason  for  the  existence  of  purgatory,  namely,  the 
varying  degrees  of  punishment  that  different  souls  deserve 
before  they  can  enter  heaven.  It  is  a  certain  fact  that 
punishment  is  due  to  every  sin,  great  or  small.  The  guilt 
is  remitted  by  the  Sacrament  of  Penance,  and  the  eternal 
punishment  as  well,  should  the  sin  have  been  mortal'. 
But  over  and  above,  there  often  remains  a  debt  of  tem¬ 
poral  or  temporary  punishment  which  must  be  undergone, 
some  time  and  in  some  place,  before  the  soul  is  entitled 
to  enter  upon  the  full  fruition  of  God’s  Presence. 

Now  Protestants,  as  a  rule,  do  not  admit  the  existence 
of  this  penalty  or  chastisement ;  they  know  nothing,  and 
have  heard  nothing  and  learned  nothing  about  it,  and, 
along  with  indulgences  it  is  probably  the  last  point  of 
Catholic  doctrine  that  the  majority  of  inquirers  and  con¬ 
verts  come  to  believe  or  understand.  Yet  it  is  plainly 
taught  in  Holy  Scripture,  and,  when  grasped,  it  at  once 
appeals  to  us  as  harmonizing  with  and  flowing  from  the 
true  teaching  about  sin,  and  God’s  justice  in  punishing  it. 
We  need  only  refer  to  the  case  of  our  first  parents  (Gen. 
iii.  16-19),  of  Moses  (Num.  xx.  it,  13),  of  the  laraelite 
murmurers  (Num.  xiv.  26),  of  David  (2  Kings — [2  Sam. 
A.V.] — xii.  13-18),  and  to  other  examples  of  the  same 
kind  related  in  the  Bible,  to  find  clear  proof  of  the  Cath¬ 
olic  doctrine  that  though  the  guilt  and  stain  of  sin  have 
been  blotted  out,  there  often  remains  something  still  to  be 
suffered  in  the  way  of  temporal  punishment.  I  have  used 
the  word  “  often  ”  advisedly :  for  we  do  not  contend  that 
the  debt  of  punishment,  though  it  is  due,  must  always  be 
exacted  from  the  penitent.  It  is  quite  possible  that  he 


14  Purgatory 

should  have  such  intense  sorrow  for  sin,  such  perfect  love 
of  God,  such  a  firm  purpose  of  amendment,  as  may  move 
his  Heavenly  Father  to  cancel  the  debt  of  chastisement 
outright.  Who  can  measure  the  efficacy  of  the  tears  of 
St.  Peter  or  the  contrition  of  St.  Mary  Magdalen  or  St. 
Margaret  of  Cortona?  “  Wherefore  I  say  to  thee:  many 
sins  are  forgiven  her,  because  she  hath  loved  much  ” 
(Luke  vii.  47).  Hence  if  a  person  died  in  perfect  disposi¬ 
tions — dispositions  perfect  enough,  I  mean,  to  gain  a 
plenary  indulgence,  which  amounts  to  a  remission  of  all 
the  temporal  punishment  due — he  would  without  doubt 
pass  immediately  to  his  heavenly  reward.  But  often  this 
does  not  and  cannot  happen ;  and  so  we  content  ourselves 
with  asserting  (what  is  enough  for  the  case  in  hand)  that 
where  a  person  is  not  possessed  of  such  perfect  charity 
and  contrition  as  to  exclude  all  affection  for  sin  and  jus¬ 
tify  him  fully  before  God — in  such  an  event  there  is  a 
punishment  of  penalty  to  be  undergone,  either  here  or  in 
purgatory.  Supposing,  then,  a  man  guilty  of  sin  had  not 
in  fact  discharged  his  debt  of  punishment  in  this  life, 
either  by  penance  or  good  works  or  indulgences — and  in 
these  days  Christians,  taken  generally,  do  not  hunger 
after  penance,  and  mortifications  as  they  once  did — what 
alternative  faces  him  but  to  discharge  his  debt  in  purga¬ 
tory?  The  inexorable  justice  of  God  demands  it.  “Amen, 
I  say  to  thee,  thou  shalt  not  go  out  from  thence  till  thou 
repay  the  last  farthing”  (Matt.  v.  26). 

5.  But  the  justice  of  God  makes  a  further  demand.  It 
demands  that  punishments  shall  be  meted  out  to  sinners  in 
proportion  to  the  measure  of  their  sin :  that  some  be  beaten 
with  few  stripes  and  others  with  many.  No  one  assuredly 
will  hold  that  a  man  who  has  lived  a  grossly  sinful  life 
and  is  converted  on  his  deathbed,  and,  even  so,  is  snatched 
from  hell,  so  to  speak,  is  entitled  to  pass  as 
speedily  and  directly  to  the  enjoyment  of  eternal 
bliss  as  the  man  whose  hair  has  whitened  in  the  service  of 
God  and  in  the  steadfast  practice  of  every  virtue.  God 
will  “  render  to  every  man  according  to  his  works”  (Matt, 
xvi.  27).  It  would  be  violating  every  true  conception  of 
Divine  Justice  to  suppose  that  the  notorious  and  inveterate 
sinner,  who  is  barely  dragged  into  a  state  of  grace,  should 


Purgatory  15 

of  a  sudden  find  himself,  on  leaving  this  world,  as  exempt 
from  all  punishment  as  the  man  who  has  sweetly  expired 
in  the  most  perfect  love  of  God,  and  who  has  perhaps  at¬ 
tained  this  degree  of  perfection  by  heroic  penance  or  mar¬ 
tyrdom.  That  the  latter  should  enter  at  once  into  the 
Beatific  Vision  we  can  well  understand;  it  is,  indeed,  a 
Catholic  doctrine  that  martyrs  do  so.  But  that  the  for¬ 
mer  should  immediately  share  the  same  felicity  could 
not  be  held  by  anyone  who  calmly  and  judicially  weighs 
the  merits  of  the  case.  “  We  dare  not,  it  is  true  ”  (to 
quote  the  Anglican,  Dr.  Luckock,  The  Intermediate  State, 
p.  64),  “  limit  the  power  of  Omnipotence  to  'fulfill  a  long 
time  in  a  short  time,’  and  to  efface  at  once  the  results 
of  a  whole  life ;  but  general  observation  shows  that  stains 
which  have  been  gradually  contracted  are  for  the  most 
part  gradually  removed;  and  reason  suggests  that  man’s 
cleansing  after  death  will  bear  at  least  some  relationship 
to  his  cleansing  in  this  life.” 

But  perhaps  it  will  be  objected  that  I  have  chosen  an 
extreme  comparison.  It  is  true ;  I  have  done  so  purposely 
for  the  sake  of  greater  clearness,  and  any  scheme  of 
theology  that  claims  to  be  true  must  provide  for  all  cases, 
even  extreme.  But  put  the  matter  more  moderately,  if 
you  will.  It  is  undoubtedly  the  fact  that  some  commit 
many  sins,  others  commit  few.  Some  serve  God  faith¬ 
fully  for  sixty  or  seventy  years ;  others  are  cut  off  two 
or  three  years  after  turning  to  Him ;  while  others  again 
continue  to  outrage  His  Divine  Majesty  up  to  the  very 
last,  and  are  hardly  converted  when  they  are  called  to 
their  account.  Now,  I  ask,  are  these  all  to  begin  their 
after-life  at  exactly  the  same  level  ?  Are  the  former  to 
be  in  no  more  favorable  case  than  the  latter  ?  It  cannot 
be.  Do  we  not  know  that  some  expiate  their  sins,  here 
and  now,  by  punishments,  whether  inflicted  by  God  or  by 
themselves,  much  more  than  others  ?  And  are  we  to  say 
that  a  prodigal  who  has  years  of  accumulated  sin  can¬ 
celled  by  one  confession — a  confession,  possibly,  made 
through  imperfect  contrition,  the  fear  of  hell — satisfies 
God’s  demands  by  the  perfunctory  performance  of  a 
trifling  penance,  as  fully  as  Saints  like  St.  Paul  of  the 
Cross,  or  like  St.  Alphonsus  and  St.  Aloysius,  who  never 


i6  Purgatory 

lost  their  innocence  and  whose  whole  lives  nevertheless 
were,  as  one  may  say,  one  terrific  mortification?  To  ask 
the  question  is  to  answer  it.  The  simple  truth  is  that  at 
death  some  have  ascended  almost  to  the  very  top  of  the 
ladder;  others  have  but  planted  their  feet  on  the  lowest 
rung.  It  is  (to  vary  the  simile)  as  if  the  first  had  all  but 
finished  their  course,  whilst  the  latter  had  only  started. 
These,  therefore,  must  wait  and  suffer  the  penalty  justly 
due  to  their  many  sins  by  undergoing  the  purifying  fire, 
and  by  being  delayed  in  reaching  the  supreme  object  of 
their  love,  and  by  experiencing  keen  pangs  of  remorse  at 
the  sight  of  their  brethren  hovering,  as  it  were,  at  the 
very  portals  of  heaven  and  within  a  little  of  being  ad¬ 
mitted  to  the  joy  of  their  Lord. 

The  act  of  dying,  as  we  have  seen,  can  of  itself  work  no 
spiritual  transformation;  it  cannot  bend  or  crush  with 
mechanical  precision  all  souls  into  one  uniform  groove. 
We  start  our  after-life  exactly  where  we  left  off  here. 
That  all  who  die  in  the  love  of  God  will  ultimately  see 
Him  face  to  face  is  indeed  a  truth  most  blessed  and  con¬ 
soling;  but  before  that  consummation,  some  may  have 
long  to  wait  and  suffer.  By  God’s  mercy  they  have  been 
saved;  in  His  justice  they  must  still  be  punished.  A 
father  may  forgive  his  child,  yet  he  may  chastise  him; 
and  only  by  contradicting  every  analogy  in  the  world  of 
experience  and  of  reason,  only  by  whittling  away  the  at¬ 
tributes  of  justice  and  fair  dealing  in  the  Divine  char¬ 
acter,  and  by  eliminating  from  Holy  Scripture  its  teach¬ 
ing  as  to  the  retribution  that  follows  sin — only  thus  could 
we  picture  the  dying  saint  and  the  trembling,  terror- 
stricken  deathbed  penitent  being  ushered  side  by  side,  with 
equal  step,  into  an  equal  place  in  the  life  beyond. 

(B)  Scripture. 

But  now  let  us  advance  another  step  in  our  proofs  for 
purgatory.  The  Protestant  at  this  point  will  naturally 
object.  “  Grant  the  existence  of  purgatory  is  reasonable; 
admit,  if  you  will,  that  it  even  appears  necessary ;  yet  it  is 
not  in  the  Bible ;  it  is  not  only  not  supported,  but  is  even 
contradicted  by  Holy  Scripture,  which  knows  only  two 


Purgatory  VJ 

places  after  death — heaven  and  hell.’’  Our  reply  is  that 
this  doctrine  is  Scriptural,  and  that  it  is  Christ’s  teaching 
and  that  of  His  inspired  Apostles.  But  before  adducing 
the  passages  in  proof,  there  are  one  or  two  points  to  bear 
in  mind  regarding  the  strength  and  value  of  the  Scriptural 
proof  of  purgatory. 

1.  In  the  first  place,  the  Catholic  Church  does  not  rest 
the  proofs  of  her  doctrine  exclusively  on  Holy  Scripture. 
She  does  not  claim  to  find  texts  explicitly  conveying  her 
every  dogma.  We  might  cite,  as'examples  of  this.  Infant 
Baptism,  the  number  of  the  Sacraments,  Indulgences, 
and  the  Immaculate  Conception.  It  is  true  she  never 
could  admit  or  teach  a  doctrine  which  was  opposed  by 
Holy  Scripture,  because  that  would  amount  to  contradict¬ 
ing  the  Holy  Ghost.  Not  all  that  Jesus  Christ 
taught  is  fully  and  plainly  expressed  in  the  New  Testa¬ 
ment.  Certainly,  it  is  there  implicity:  it  is  often  hinted 
at  or  implied ;  or  it  follows  logically  from  some  other 
doctrine  clearly  enunciated.  But  whatever  of  our  Lord’s 
teaching  is  veiled  or  hidden  in  the  written  Word,  is  cer¬ 
tainly  contained  in  tradition,  that  unwritten  Word  of 
God  which  was  taught  by  Jesus  Christ,  deposited  with 
His  Apostles,  and  handed  down  and  unfolded  by  them 
and  their  successors,  with  the  assistance  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  Who  came  that  He  might  “  teach  them  all  things 
and  bring  all  things  to  their  remembrance”  (John  xiv. 
26;  xvi.  13).  The  result  is  that  when  you  come  to  the 
reading  of  Holy  Scriptures  with  the  Catholic  doctrine 
already  in  your  mind,  you  can  find  it  there  plainly 
enough ;  you  discover  and  recognize  it  in  passages  which 
before  were  simply  unintelligible.  Supposing,  then,  that 
neither  the  name  purgatory  nor  the  existence  of  such  a 
place  were  taught  in  so  many  words  in  the  Bible,  that 
would  be  no  argument  against  its  truth.  Yet,  of  course, 
the  case  for  purgatory  is  far  stronger  than  that. 

2.  In  the  next  place,  we  must  remark  that  it  need  be  no 
surprise  if  we  find  less  in  Holy  Scripture  about  purgatory 
than  about  either  heaven  or  hell.  We  must  not  demand 
more  testimony  from  such  a  witness  about  the  interme¬ 
diate  state  than  can  reasonably  be  expected.  The  Scrip¬ 
tures  for  the  most  part  are  intended  to  teach  us,  by  pre- 


1 8  Purgatory 

ccpt  and  example,  how  to  live  on  earth,  how  to  know  and 
love  and  serve  God  here  below;  for  upon  this  assuredly 
depends  our  hereafter.  And  again  the  Scriptures  are 
designed  to  reveal,  though  in  a  lesser  degree,  the  rewards 
and  punishments  that  are  reserved  for  us  at  the  Judgment 
Day ;  to  show  the  ultimate  destiny  both  of  the  man  who 
has  lived  a  good  life  and  of  him  who  has  lived  a  bad  one; 
to  depict,  in  short,  heaven  and  hell.  Hence,  from  the 
very  nature  of  the  case,  we  should  expect  to  hear  less 
about  that  middle  state  which  intervenes  between  death 
and  the  general  judgment.  A  man’s  final  destiny,  as  has 
been  said,  is  already  fixed  at  death;  consequently  upon 
due  preparation  for  that  event  attention  is  most  naturally 
concentrated  by  Holy  Scripture.  We  should  not  be  as¬ 
tonished,  therefore,  if  information  less  full  is  vouchsafed 
us  about  that  state  which,  in  its  purifying  and  cleansing 
operation,  merely  puts  the  finishing  touch  upon  a  work 
of  sanctification  already  substantially  accomplished. 

3.  From  this  it  follows  of  course  that  the  quotation  by 
Protestants  of  texts  promising  heaven  as  a  reward  is  be¬ 
side  the  point.  “  In  My  Father’s  house  there  are  many 

mansions . I  go  to  prepare  a  place  for  you . I 

will  take  you  to  Myself,  that  where  I  am,  you  also  may 
be  ” — these  words  of  our  Lord,  and  the  desire  of  St. 
Paul  “  to  be  dissolved  and  to  be  with  Christ  ”  (Phil.  i. 
23),  ‘‘  to  be  absent  rather  from  the  body  and  to  be  pres¬ 
ent  with  the  Lord  ”  (2  Cor.  v.  8)  and  the  expression  of  St. 
John,  “  Blessed  are  the  dead  who  die  in  the  Lord  ” 
(Apoc.  xiv.  13),  import  nothing  against  the  Catholic  doc¬ 
trine.  Neither  Jesus  Christ  nor  His  Apostles  necessar¬ 
ily  imply  that  Cie  entrance  into  heaven  after  death, 
though  assured,  will  be  immediate.  Our  divine  Lord 
Himself  did  not  immediately  after  death  pass  into  heaven. 
Scripture  broken  up  and  taken  piecemeal  can  be  quoted 
to  prove  almost  anything.  According  to  this  principle, 
and  with  equal  plausibility.  Catholics  might  argue  from 
our  Lord’s  declaration  (Matt.  xxv.  34),  that  only  at  the 
Last  Day,  when  all  nations  are  gathered  together  for  the 
general  judgment,  and  not  till  then,  can  anyone  possess 
the  kingdom  prepared  for  him — a  conclusion  which  is 
certainly  false.  Scripture  requires  to  be  examined  as  a 


Purgatory  19 

whole  and  interpreted  by  an  infallible  authority.  Let  us, 
then,  produce  our  Scripture  proofs. 

(a)  To  begin  with  the  Old  Testament,  there  is  the 
classical  text  in  2  Mach.  xii.  43-46.  “  It  is  therefore  a 

holy  and  wholesome  thought  to  pray  for  the  dead,  that 
they  may  be  loosed  from  sins.”  Protestants,  I  know,  call 
this  book  ‘‘  apocryphal,”  and  deny  that  it  is  inspired ; 
their  reforming  forefathers  deliberately  cast  it  out  of  the 
sacred  volume  of  which  it  had  formed  an  integral  part, 
no  less  than  the  Four  Gospels,  ever  since  the  Canon  was 
settled  in  the  fourth  century.  “Finding”  (as  has  been 
acutely  remarked)  “  that  they  could  not  by  any  evasion 
weaken  the  force  of  the  text,  they  impiously  threw  over¬ 
board  the  Books  of  Machabees,  like  a  man  who  assassin¬ 
ates  a  hostile  witness.”  But  even  so,  they  must  at  least 
admit  that  as  historical  records  these  books  are  genuine 
and  trustworthy ;  and,  as  such,  the  passage  quoted  shows 
that  both  author  and  Jewish  people  at  that  time  (the 
centuries  immediately  preceding  the  birth  of  Christ)  be¬ 
lieved  that  prayers  and  sacrifices  were  advantageous  to 
the  faithful  departed.  Such  a  belief,  of  course,  involves 
a  purgatory.  It  is,  moreover,  an  established  fact  that  the 
Jews  now,  as  then,  believe  in  the  existence  of  some 
middle  state,  and  offer  prayers  to  God  for  the  souls 
there  detained,  both  in  public  and  in  private  worship.  An 
examination  of  the  liturgy  or  of  an  authorized,  prayer- 
book  of  the  Jewish  Church  to-day,  will  convince  the 
reader  that  the  children  of  Israel  have  never  forgotten 
or  neglected  the  sacred  duty  of  praying  for  their  de¬ 
ceased  brethren.  Now  note  what  follows  from  this. 
Our  Lord  by  His  silence  approved  of  the  doctrine  and 
the  practice ;  never  once  did  He  reprove  or  condemn  it. 
He  was  present  habitually  at  the  solemn  liturgical  serv¬ 
ices  of  Synagogue  and  Temple  and  joined  in  them ; 
doubtless  in  private  He  made  use  of  the  ordinary  Jewish 
prayers  and  devotions;  yet  never  once  did  He  object 
to  this  feature  in  them.  It  was  His  rule,  as  we  know,  to 
denounce  corruptions  of  faith  and  morals  introduced  by 
Scribes,  Pharisees,  and  priests,  and  to  lay  bare  the  human 
traditions  with  which  they  had  overlaid  the  Word  of 
the  Lord.  But  among  them  He  does  not  reckon  the 


20  Purgatory 

pious  custom  of  praying  for  the  dead,  and  from  this  we 
are  entitled  to  conclude  that  the  custom  is  a  lawful  one, 
and  the  doctrine,  which  it  presupposes,  true. 

{b)  In  Matt.  xii.  32  our  Saviour  says  of  a  certain 
sin  that  it  should  be  forgiven  “  neither  in  this  world,  nor 
in  the  world  to  come.”  From  this,  surely,  it  is  fair 
enough  to  infer  (with  St.  Augustine  and  other  eminent 
commentators)  that  there  are  some  sins  which  may  be 
forgiven  in  the  world  to  come.  But  that  could  not  hap¬ 
pen  either  in  heaven  or  in  hell. 

(c)  St.  Paul  in  a  famous  passage  (i  Cor.  iii.  11-15) 
declares  that  “  fire  shall  try  every  man’s  work  of  what 
sort  it  is,”  and  that  the  man  “  himself  shall  be  saved,  yet 
so  as  by  fire.”  Where  is  this  fire?  Not  certainly  on 
earth  and  not  in  heaven;  and  as  certainly  not  in  hell, 
for  that  fire  torments  but  does  not  save.  Hence  the 
Apostle  must  refer  only  to  the  temporary  purifying  flames 
of  purgatory.  And  this  interpretation  is  not  a  modern 
or  Popish  invention ;  it  is  the  unanimous  voice  of  the 
Fathers  of  Christendom,  as  anyone  may  prove  for  him¬ 
self  by  consulting  the  relative  passages  in  the  writings  of 
Origen,  St.  Ambrose,  St.  Jerome,  St.  Augustine,  and 
others  of  like  authority. 

{d)  Further,  that  St.  Paul  himself  actually  practised 
the  custom  of  praying  for  the  dead  seems  morally  certain 
from  his  own  words  in  2  Tim.  i.  16-18,  taken  together 
with  2  Tim.  iv.  19.  “  The  Lord  grant  unto  him  to  find 

mercy  of  the  Lord  in  that  day  ”  is  the  prayer  he  offers 
for  Onesiphorus,  his  former  fellow-laborer  at  Ephesus. 
That  this  man  was  no  longer  among  the  living  when  the 
Apostle  uttered  this  supplication  on  his  behalf,  appears 
clear  enough  from  the  fact  that  the  Apostle  sends  no 
salutation  to  him  in  his  letter  to  St.  Timothy,  but  only 
to  his  household ;  for  him  he  only  prays  that  he  “  may 
find  mercy  ”  with  Christ  at  the  Day  of  Judgment.  And 
such  is  the  opinion,  not  only  of  Catholic  commentators, 
but  also  of  Protestants  like  Luther  and  De  Wette. 

{e)  Other  passages  might  be  cited  from  Holy  Scrip¬ 
ture  conveying  more  or  less  directly  the  doctrine  of  pur¬ 
gatory,  such  as  Matt.  xvi.  27 ;  Matt.  v.  25,  26,  and  Apoc, 
xxi.  27;  but  we  shall  content  ourselves  with  adducing 


Purgatory  21 

only  two  more  that  strike  us  as  much  to  the  purpose. 
I  ask,  now,  if  there  be  no  third  place  in  the  world  beyond, 
how  can  we  possibly  explain  that  much-debated  pas¬ 
sage  in  St.  Peter’s  First  Epistle  (iii.  18-20)  about  the 
spirits  in  prison,  and  the  promise  to  the  good  thief  upon 
the  Cross,  “  To-day  thou  shalt  be  with  Me  in  Paradise?  ” 
(Luke  xxiii.  43.)  On  the  Catholic  interpretation,  the 
sense  is  perfectly  clear.  After  expiring  on  the  Cross, 
our  Blessed  Lord’s  soul,  accompanied  by  that  of  the 
penitent  thief,  descended  to  Limbo,  that  place  where  the 
souls  of  the  just  who  died  before  Christ  were  detained. 
The  “  Paradise  ”  to  which  He  went  assuredly  was  not 
heaven,  for  He  Himself  declared  to  St.  Mary  Magdalen 
after  His  Resurrection,  “  I  am  not  yet  ascended  to  My 
Father  ”  (John  xx.  17).  Nor  yet  was  it  hell,  the  place  of 
the  damned.  The  words  of  the  Psalmist  (Ps.  xv.,  A.  V. 
Psa.  xvi.),  “  Thou  wilt  not  leave  my  soul  in  hell,”  quoted 
by  St.  Peter  (Acts  ii.  31)  as  applying  to  our  Lord,  can¬ 
not  refer  to  the  place  of  everlasting  torment,  for  the 
soul  of  our  Divine  Redeemer  was  certainly  never  in 
such  a  place.  Hence  it  must  have  been  Limbo,  Hades, 
the  prison.  Paradise,  call  it  what  you  will.  And  the 
reason  why  the  souls  of  the  just  of  the  Old  Law,  such  as 
Abraham  and  Moses  and  the  Prophets,  were  there  de¬ 
tained  was  simply  because  they  could  not  go  up  to 
heaven  till  Christ  opened  it  for  them.  This  He  did  only 
when  He  ascended  forty  days  after  His  Resurrection. 
Before  that  event.  He  declared,  “  no  man  had  ascended 
into  heaven”  (John  iii.  13).  But  at  His  Ascension  He 
opened  the  gates  of  heaven,  which  had  been  shut  ever 
since  the  expulsion  of  Adam  and  Eve  (Gen.  iii.  24),  and 
took  with  Him  a  great  company  of  redeemed  and  puri¬ 
fied  souls.  To  Catholics,  then,  acknowledging  a  middle 
place,  the  visit  of  our  Saviour  with  the  good  thief  to  the 
spirits  in  prison  presents  no  difficulty.  But  on  the  Prot¬ 
estant  theory  that  no  such  place  exists,  or  ever  existed, 
what  satisfactory  interpretation  can  be  given  to  these 
passages?  I  venture  to  say,  none.  No  place  whatever 
is  to  be  found  for  the  millions  of  souls  that  departed 
this  life,  before  the  coming  of  the  Redeemer,  with  the 
guilt  of  venial  sin.  or  with  some  debt  of  temporal  punish- 


22  Purgatory 

merit  not  yet  discharged.  And  precisely  for  this  reason 
I  have  known  a  Protestant  teacher  reject  and  refuse  to 
utter  these  words  in  the  Creed,  “  He  descended  into  hell,” 
well  knowing  that  the  expression  postulated  a  middle 
state  which  he  did  not  believe  in.  Would  that  all  Prot- 
testants  were  as  logical  in  perceiving  the  flagrant  Popery 
of  the  Apostles’  Creed ! 

(C)  Tradition. 

It  now  only  remains  to  bring  forward  our  third  great 
set  of  proofs  for  purgatory  and  prayers  for  the  departed, 
the  testimony,  namely,  of  Tradition.  That  Protestants  in 
general  set  little  or  no  store  by  tradition  is  too  well 
known,  and  hence  some  might  consider  it  useless  and  su¬ 
perfluous  to  set  such  evidence  before  them.  Neverthe¬ 
less,  though  they  may  not  acknowledge  its  value  as 
proving  purgatory  to  be  a  doctrine  of  Christ  and  His 
Apostles,  they  will  at  least  be  forced  to  admit — those 
of  them,  I  mean,  who  make  an  impartial  review  of  the 
evidence — that  it  completely  destroys  the  popular  con¬ 
tention  that  it  is  a  late  invention  of  cunning  priests,  de¬ 
signed  to  squeeze  money  out  of  sorrowing  Christians  to 
purchase  Masses  for  the  souls  of  their  dear  departed.  If 
we  can  show  (to  quote  the  words  of  Monsignor  Gaume) 
that  “  it  is  a  fact,  as  certain  as  the  existence  of  the  sun, 
that  since  the  time  of  the  Apostles  the  Church  has  never 
ceased  to  offer  prayers  and  sacrifices  for  her  departed 
children,”  surely  it  will  be  allowed  that  a  good  case  has 
been  made  out  for  the  Apostolic  origin  of  the  doctrine  we 
are  expounding,  and  if  it  is  of  Apostolic  authority  it  fol¬ 
lows  of  necessity  that  it  has  the  authority  of  our  Divine 
Lord. 

We  shall  best  present  the  testimony  of  Tradition  by 
dividing  it  into  three  parts:  (i)  The  Catacombs,  (2)  The 
Early  Fathers,  (3)  The  Primitive  Liturgies. 

I.  The  Catacombs. 

These  may  be  comprehensively  described  as  under¬ 
ground  cemeteries,  excavated  by  the  early  Christians, 
under  stress  of  persecution,  for  the  entombment  of  their 
lead,  and  for  the  celebration  of  the  sacred  Mysteries  of 


Purgatory  23 

our  religion.  The  inscriptions  on  the  walls,  referring  to 
their  dead,  date,  according  to  archaeologists,  from  the 
first  to  the  fifth  century  of  our  era.  They  cover  a 
period,  therefore,  that  non-Catholics  speak  of  as  pure  and 
uncorrupted  by  the  malign  influence  of  Rome.  ‘‘  It  is 
the  record  ”  (to  use  the  words  of  the  Anglican  Dean 
Luckock,  After  Death,  p.  85),  “of  an  age  to  which  we 
may  turn  with  confidence  for  guidance  in  difficulty,  for 
on  no  period  of  the  Church’s  history  has  the  true  spirit 
of  her  Founder  left  so  clear  an  impress.  We  accept, 
therefore,  whatever  indication  it  may  give  of  primitive 
usage  or  doctrine  with  feelings  of  satisfaction,  assured 
that  we  should  find  nothing  but  the  calm,  deliberate,  be¬ 
lief  of  the  generations  for  which  it  speaks.” 

What,  then,  do  these  inscriptions  teach  us?  They  re¬ 
veal,  with  the  utmost  clearness,  the  belief  of  the  primitive 
Christians  in  the  doctrine  of  an  Intermediate  State  and 
in  the  efficacy  of  prayers  for  the  departed.  Take  a  few 
exg^nples  out  of  multitudes.  “  Peace  to  tjiy  soul,  O 
Zosima,  and  peace  to  Fortunata  my  sweetest  daughter.” 
“  Hilaris,  may  you  live  happily  with  your  friends ;  may 
you  be  refreshed  in  the  peace  of  God,”  “  Kalemeros,  may 
God  refresh  thy  spirit,  together  with  that  of  thy  sister 
Hilara,”  “  Bolosa,  may  God  refresh  you,”  “  Heraclea, 
Roma,  may  thy  soul  [go]  into  refreshment,”  “  Timothea, 
mayest  thou  have  eternal  light  in  Christ,”  “  O  Lord,  let 
not  the  spirit  of  Venus  be  overshadowed,”  “  Beloved  one, 
may  thy  spirit  be  in  peace,”  “  Peace  with  thee,  Lais. 
May  thy  spirit  rest  in  good,”  “  Remember,  O  Lord  Jesus, 
our  child,”  “  May  thy  spirit  rest  well  in  God.  Pray  for 
thy  sister,”  “  Mayest  thou  live  in  peace  and  pray  for  us,’' 
“  Mayest  thou  live  in  the  Lord  and  pray  for  us.”  The 
last  three  are  remarkable  in  that  they  contain  not  only 
prayers  for  the  departed,  but  also  invocation  of  saints. 
It  would  be  easy  to  fill  several  pages  with  inscriptions 
of  this  kind,  taken  from  the  museums  and  catacombs  of 
the  city  of  Rome,  and  the  interested  reader  can  find  a 
hundred  more  for  himself  in  such  standard  works  as 
Northcote  and  Brownlow’s  Roma  Sotterranea;  but 
enough  has  been  produced  to  impress  on  anyone  the 
general  character  of  these  epitaphs.  They  implore  for 


24  Purgatory 

the  departed  soul  peace  and  light  and  refreshment  and 
rest  in  God  and  in  Christ.  It  may  be  objected  that  many 
of  the  expressions  are  nothing  more  than  “  pious  acclama¬ 
tions.”  But  the  same  might  be  said  of  the  Requiescat 
in  pace  (“  May  he  rest  in  peace”),  and  yet  Catholics  us¬ 
ing  these  words  undoubtedly  intend  a  direct  prayer  for 
the  souls  of  the  departed.  We  claim  that  these  ancient 
mural  inscriptions  show,  with  a  clearness  unmistakable 
to  all  who  are  not  wilfully  blind,  that  our  first  fathers 
in  the  faith  had  an  intense  belief  in  the  truth  which  Wis¬ 
dom  had  made  known,  that  “  the  souls  of  the  just  are  in 
the  hand  of  God,  and  the  torment  of  death  shall  not  touch 

them . but  they  are  in  peace”  (Wisd.  iii.  i,  3), 

that  though  many  might  be  in  heaven,  as  the  martyrs, 
still  there  were  others  who  needed  light  in  their  dark¬ 
ness,  rest  in  their  trouble,  refreshment  from  the  heat  of 
the  purgatorial  fire,  and  peace,  to  end  their  sufferings. 

In  a  word  ”  (to  quote  a  comprehensive  sentence  of  Pro¬ 
vost  Northcote),  “  they  proceed  upon  the  assumption  that 
there  is  an  incessant  interchange  of  kindly  offices  between 
this  world  and  the  next,  between  the  living  and  the  dead ; 
they  represent  all  the  faithful  as  living  members  of  one 
Body,  the  Body  of  Christ ;  as  forming  one  great  family, 
knit  together  in  the  closest  bonds  of  love ;  and  this  love 
finding  its  chief  work  and  happiness  in  prayer,  prayer  of 
survivors  for  those  who  have  gone  before,  prayer  of  the 
blessed  for  those  who  are  left  behind.”  Whence  could 
have  originated  this  doctrine  and  this  practice?  Our 
answer  is,  it  has  its  origin  in  the  Deposit  of  the  Faith, 
taught  by  Jesus  Christ  and  transmitted  by  the  Apostles; 
and  it  is  the  only  answer  that  can  be  given. 

2.  The  Early  Fathers. 

Turning  now  to  our  second  class  of  witnesses  for  Chris¬ 
tian  tradition,  we  meet  the  constant  and  unanimous  teach¬ 
ing  of  the  earliest  Fathers  and  Doctors  of  the  Church — 
that  is  to  say,  those  of  the  first  four  or  five  centuries. 
Protestants  themselves  do  not  call  in  question  the  existence 
of  a  full-grown  belief  in  purgatory  in  the  centuries  that 
followed.  “  For  more  than  thirteen  hundred  years,” 
said  Calvin,  “  the  practice  of  praying  for  the  dead  has 


Purgatory  25 

existed/’  To  relate  all,  or  even  any  considerable  part 
of  these  primitive  testimonies,  would  of  course  be  im¬ 
possible  within  the  limits  of  these  pages :  we  must  select 
but  a  few  that  may  stand  as  specimens  of  all.  They  will 
be  sufficient  to  substantiate  the  Catholic  claim  that  the 
immediate  successors  of  the  Apostles,  handing  down 
Apostolic  doctrine,  teach,  unrebuked  and  unquestioned, 
the  practice  of  praying  for  the  departed,  and  rather  take 
for  granted,  than  attempt  to  prove,  the  existence  of  the  in¬ 
termediate  state  between  heaven  and  hell.  Tertullian,  for 
example,  in  the  second  century,  speaks  frequently  of  it, 
and  says  that  the  usage  was  founded  on  tradition.  “  The 
faithful  wife,”  he  says,  will  pray  for  the  sou!  of  her 
deceased  husband,  particularly  on  the  anniversary  of  his 
falling  asleep.”  St.  Cyprian  (third  century)  speaks  of  the 
custom  of  celebrating  the  Sacrifice  for  the  repose  of  souls 
as  being  already  practised  by  the  bishops  who  preceded 
him.  Eusebius,  the  historian  (fourth  century),  describes 
how  at  the  funeral  of  Constantine  the  Great,  the  priests 
and  people,  with  tears  and  much  lamentation,  offered  up 
prayers  and  sacrifice  for  the  repose  of  his  soul.  St. 
Cyril  of  Jerusalem  (same  century),  explaining  to  the 
faithful  the  custom  of  praying  for  the  dead,  says :  “  We 
pray  for  our  parents  and  our  bishops,  and  in  general  for 
the  souls  of  all  our  departed  ones  in  the  firm  hope  that 
they  receive  great  consolation  from  the  prayers  that  are 
offered  for  them  in  the  holy  and  awful  Sacrifice.”  St. 
Ephrem  (same  century)  begged  his  brethren  to  assist  his 
soul  after  death  with  their  prayers.  St.  Ambrose  (same 
century)  prayed  God  for  the  deceased  Emperor  Theo¬ 
dosius  :  “  Give  perfect  rest  to  thy  servant  Theodosius,  that 
rest  which  Thou  hast  prepared  for  thy  saints.”  St.  John 
Chrysostom,  our  final  witness  for  the  fourth  century,  de¬ 
cidedly  declares  that  it  was  ordained  by  the  Apostles 
that  mention  should  be  made  of  the  dead  in  the  tremend¬ 
ous  mysteries,  because  they  knew  well  that  they  would 
receive  great  benefit  from  it.”  In  the  fifth  century  St. 
Augustine  composed  a  treatise  on  our  duties  to  the  dead, 
in  which  prayers  for  their  repose  continually  occur. 
“  That,”  he  says,  which  cannot  be  doubted  is  that  the 
prayers  of  the  Church,  theHoly  Sacrifice,  alms,  bring  relief 


26  Purgatory 

to  them,  and  obtain  a  more  merciful  treatment  for  them 
than  they  deserved.”  And  who  does  not  remember  the 
touching  request  m.ade  to  him  by  his  holy  mother  St. 
Monica  when  at  the  point  of  death :  “  Lay  this  body  any¬ 
where  :  let  not  the  care  of  it  in  anyway  disturb  you.  This 
only  I  request  of  you,  that,  wherever  you  be,  you  would 
remember  me  at  the  altar  of  the  Lord.”  That  her  son 
faithfully  fulfilled  her  dying  request,  and  interceded  for 
her  with  God,  often  in  the  most  impassioned  language,  is 
known  to  all  who  are  familiar  with  the  life  of  the  illua- 
trious  Doctor. 

These  few  examples  must  here  suffice;  they  may  be 
multiplied  to  any  extent  by  the  reader  who  consults  works 
dealing  with  this  part  of  the  subject.  And  we  may  safely 
assert  that  no  one  reading  the  early  Fathers,  with  a  mind 
unwarped  by  prejudice,  can  help  seeing  that  they  not  only 
taught  the  doctrine,  but  themselves  practised  the  custom 
of  offering  prayers  for  the  faithful  departed,  and  that 
both  in  their  private  devotion  and  in  the  solemn  services 
of  the  Church.  If  you  say  “  I  do  not  care  what  the  Fath¬ 
ers  taught  and  did ;  I  care  only  for  what  Christ  and  His 
Apostles  taught  and  did,”  I  answer,  I  am  helping  you  to 
find  out  that  very  thing;  for  these  teachers  I  am  quoting 
are  merely  handing  down  what  they  were  taught  by  Jesus 
Christ  and  His  Apostles.  They  began  to  flourish  immedi¬ 
ately  after  the  death  of  the  last  of  the  Apostles ;  they  were 
in  the  full  stream  of  Apostolic  tradition ;  the  Gospel  was  as 
yeb  according  to  Protestants,  untainted  by  Roman  corrup¬ 
tions.  It  is  inconceivable,  then,  that  these  holy  and  learned 
men  should  have  inculcated  and  encouraged  such  belief 
had  they  not  received  it  from  their  predecessors  in  the 
faith.  They  could  not  have  invented  a  practice,  involving 
the  momentous  addition  of  a  third  place  after  death,  and 
foisted  it  on  Christian  communities  without  resistance  and 
reproof.  Neither  gradually  nor  suddenly  could  such  a 
doctrine  have  crept  in  without  being  detected  as  at  vari¬ 
ance  with  the  teaching  of  the  Apostles.  Popes  and  bish¬ 
ops,  whether  individually  or  acting  in  councils,  zealous 
custodians  of  the  faith  delivered  to  the  saints,  kept  sleep¬ 
less  guard  over  the  Apostolic  teaching  and  constitutions, 
and  from  their  watch-tower  could  at  once  have  signalled 


Purgatory  27 

the  entrance  of  false  or  spurious  or  unauthorized  doc¬ 
trines.  Yet  no  voice  was  ever  raised  against  the  con¬ 
stantly  reiterated  doctrine  of  Purgatory  and  Prayers  for 
the  Dead.  We  can  only  conclude,  then,  with  St.  Isidore, 
a  Doctor  of  the  seventh  century,  who  declares,  “  Because 
the  oblation  of  the  Sacrifice  and  prayer  for  the  repose  of 
the  faithful  departed,  are  made  in  the  Church  through¬ 
out  the  world,  we  believe  that  this  custom  has  come  from 
the  Apostles.” 

3.  The  Primitive  Liturgies. 

Once  more,  the  faith  of  the  Church  finds  expression  in 
its  forms  of  prayer,  according  to  the  saying  lex  credendi, 
lex  orandi.  The  Church  could  never,  in  the  solemn  cele¬ 
bration  of  her  Sacred  Mysteries,  authorize  prayers  involv¬ 
ing  false  or  unscriptural  doctrine.  Now,  it  is  as  certain  as 
anything  in  history  can  be,  that  prayers  for  the  faithful 
departed  formed  an  integral  part  of  her  liturgy  during  the 
first  five  centuries.  A  liturgy  may  be  described  as  “  the 
established  formulary  of  public  worship,  containing  the 
authorized  prayers  of  the  Church.”  The  principal  litur¬ 
gies  are  found  to  range  themselves  in  several  great  lam- 
ilies  or  classes.  They  are,  for  example,  the  Liturgy  of  St. 
James  (Jerusalem),  the  Liturgy  of  St.  Mark  (Alexan¬ 
dria),  the  Liturgy  of  St.  Peter  (Rome),  the  Liturgy  of 
St.  Basil  and  of  St.  John  Chrysostom  (Constantinople), 
to  mention  but  a  few  of  the  more  widely  spread  in  various 
regions.  They  range  in  date,  according  to  varying  esti¬ 
mates,  from  the  second  to  the  fifth  century.  Now,  no  one 
pretends  to  deny  that  every  one  of  the  liturgies,  without 
exception,  contains  direct  intercession  for  the  departed. 
In  that  of  St.  James,  for  instance,  the  priest  prays,  “  Re¬ 
member,  O  Lord  God,  the  spirits  of  all  flesh  of  whom  we 
have  made  mention,  and  of  whom  we  have  not  made  men¬ 
tion,  who  are  of  the  true  faith ;  from  righteous  Abel  unto 
this  day:  do  Thou  Thyself  give  them  rest  there,  in  the 
land  of  the  living.”  These  words  again  are  from  St. 
Mark’s  Liturgy :  “  Give  rest,  O  Sovereign  Lord,  our  God, 
to  the  souls  of  all  those  who  are  in  the  tabernacle  of  the 
saints  in  Thy  Kingdom.”  St.  Cyril’s  has  this :  “  Be  mer¬ 
ciful,  O  Lord.  Grant  rest  to  our  fathers  and  brothers 


28  Purgatory 

who  have  fallen  asleep,  and  whose  souls  Thou  hast  re¬ 
ceived/’  Similar  expressions  are  to  be  found  in  them  all. 
And  not  only  the  liturgies  used  by  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church  throughout  the  world,  but,  what  is  more  signifi¬ 
cant  still,  those  of  the  earliest  heretics  who  broke  off  from 
her  contain  the  same  petitions  and  intercessions.  From 
the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries,  when  the  Arians  and  Nes- 
torians  fell  away,  to  the  ninth,  which  witnessed  the  Greek 
schism,  various  Christian  communities  lapsed  into  heresy 
and  schism,  severing  their  union  with  the  Apostolic  See. 
Yet  they  took  with  them  the  ancient  liturgies,  and  never 
ceased  the  holy  practice  of  offering  sacrifice  for  their 
dead.  A  very  cursory  perusal  of  the  Armenian,  the  Chal¬ 
dean,  the  Coptic,  the  Maronite,the  Syriac,  or  other  Orien¬ 
tal  rite,  will  satisfy  any  inquirer  on  the  point.  He  will 
find  in  all  a  formula  almost  identical  with  that  repeated 
every  day  in  the  Roman  Missal :  “  Remember,  O  Lord, 
Thy  servants  who  are  gone  before  us  with  the  sign  of 
the  faith  and  sleep  in  peace.  To  these,  O  Lord,  and  to 
all  who  rest  in  Christ,  grant,  we  beseech  Thee,  a  place  of 
refreshment,  light,  and  peace,  through  the  same  Jesus 
Christ  our  Lord.” 

If  these  Eastern  Churches,  separated  from  the  Roman 
See  for  so  many  centuries,  yet  hold  the  same  belief  and 
follow  the  same  practice  as  we  do,  then  there  is  surely 
good  reason  to  think  that,  in  common  with  us,  they 
received  this  doctrine  from  the  Apostles.  We  may  con¬ 
clude,  therefore,  that  Protestants,  in  rejecting  this  salu¬ 
tary  practice,  are  following  after  novelties,  and  have  cut 
themselves  adrift  from  the  whole  of  Christendom,  East 
and  West,  from  Apostolic  times  down  to  the  present 
hour. 

Conclusion. 

Much  might  be  added  now  on  the  devotional  and  prac¬ 
tical  sides  of  this  subject,  but  this  must  be  learned  else¬ 
where.  In  a  last  word,  however,  we  cannot  help  noting 
how  the  custom  of  interceding  for  departed  Chris¬ 
tians  is  beginning  to  obtain  among  non-Catholics. 
And  the  reason  is  not  far  to  seek.  For  one 
thing  (a)  Protestants  no  longer  believe,  as  they  used  to 


Purgatory  29 

do,  in  the  eternity  of  hell ;  and  as  a  hell  that  is  not  eternal 
is  no  hell  at  all,  but  simply  a  purgatory,  the  Catholic  doc¬ 
trine  perforce  is  finding  wide  acceptance.  Believing  in 
the  “  larger  hope,”  in  salvation  for  all,  in  a  second  chance 
after  death,  and  trading  upon  the  supposed  impossibility 
of  a  never-ending  punishment,  our  separated  brethren  see 
every  reason  for  continuing  to  pray  for  departed  sinners ; 
and  what  is  this  but  an  approximation  to  the  Catholic 
doctrine?  As  hell  gradually  vanishes,  purgatory  takes 
its  place.  They  are  beginning  to  say  there  is  something 
in  the  old  Catholic  doctrine  after  all. 

{h)  But  besides  this,  it  is  a  natural  instinct  in  the  hu¬ 
man  heart  to  pray  for  departed  friends.  It  is  contrary 
to  human  nature  and  to  reason  suddenly  to  stop  praying 
for  a  soul  for  which  you  have  prayed  all  your  life,  simply 
because  it  has  been  separated  from  the  body ;  for 
what  has  distance  to  do  with  it?  And  so  it 
is  to-day  that,  among  those  who  are  returning  to  this 
ancient  practice,  the  love  of  the  heart  is  asserting 
itself  over  the  dogmatism  of  sect,  and  many  Protestants 
freely  pursue  their  loved  ones  beyond  the  grave  with  sup¬ 
plications  for  their  repose.  Not  to  do  so  appears  to  them 
heartless  and  illogical.  And  they  experience  a  comfort 
and  a  joy,  as  Catholics  do,  in  the  holy  custom.  They 
feel  the  black  gulf  is  bridged  across,  and  that  they  are 
still  knit  together  in  the  bonds  of  a  common  love  and 
sympathy.  The  sting  of  death  and  the  sharpness  of  its 
sorrow  is  mitigated  by  the  constant  remembrance  of 
them,  by  the  thought  that  they  are  still  bound  to  these 
dear  departed  by  the  golden  chain  of  prayer,  and  can  pray 
for,  and  help,  and  even  speak  to  them,  as  of  old.  Death 
is  robbed  of  much  of  its  terror,  and  the  separation  of 
friends  becomes  endurable.  With  this  beautiful  belief, 
the  Christian  standing  at  the  open  grave  is  no  longer 
mute  and  puzzled,  but  finds  vent  for  his  grief  in  earnest 
petitions  to  God  on  behalf  of  his  loved  ones.  Funeral 
services  are  no  longer  a  mere  empty  pageant,  with 
lengthy  prayers  designed  to  glorify  the  departed  and 
sympathize  with  the  living.  Tombstone  inscriptions  and 
anniversaries  are  no  more  a  meaningless  formality.  But 
these  and  other  pious  customs  become  clothed  with  deep 


•Jo  Purgatory 

and  real  significance,  and  are  used  as  a  practical  means  oii 
assisting  the  souls  of  the  dead  to  arrive  at  their  heavenly 
home.  What  more  touching  and  beautiful  sight,  indeed, 
can  anywhere  be  witnessed  than  that  which  may  be  seen 
in  Catholic  lands  as  often  as  the  Day  of  All  Souls  (No¬ 
vember  2d)  comes  round  ?  The  entire  population  of  vil¬ 
lage  or  city  is  seen  making  its  way  to  the  “  campo  santo  ” 
(the  cemetery),  in  hundreds  and  in  thousands,  to  visit 
their  dead,  carrying  with  them  wreaths  and  crosses  and 
flowers,  kindling  lamps  that  symbolize  the  light  of  faith, 
and  breathing  prayers  for  the  welfare  of  the  souls  that 
have  gone  before.  There,  at  least,  one  sees  and  realizes 
the  meaning  of  that  article  of  the  Creed,  “  the  Com¬ 
munion  of  Saints.”  Let  us  whisper  a  fervent  prayer 
that  such  once  more  may  be  the  faith  and  devotion  of 
every  Christian  as  in  days  gone  by,  and  that  all, 
bound  together  as  one  family  in  submission  to  the  Roman 
Church,  may  find  themselves  assisting  at  the  offering  of 
the  Holy  Mass  for  the  living  and  the  dead,  and  with  one 
heart  and  one  voice  send  up  to  Almighty  God  the  hal¬ 
lowed  prayer — 

Requiem  eternam  dona  eis,  Domine, 

Et  lux  perpetua  luceat  eis ! 

Requiescant  in  pace! 

Amen  I 

Postscript. — The  writer  acknowledges  his  indebtedness  for 
some  ideas,  and  even  phraseology,  both  to  non-Catholic  authors, 
such  as  Luckock,  Chambers,  and  others  (works  cited),  and  to 
the  usual  theological  and  controversial  books  by  Catholics. 


The  members  of  The  Paulist  Press  Association  receive 
two  pamphlets  a  month,  including  new  pamphlet  publications 
of  The  Paulist  Press.  Membership  is  two  dollars  the  year. 


i*-'.  ■>?. 


'^^■'^*  .9  '  /  ‘‘i "  1  **i  ‘ilL  *  .  .  M  ^  ^ 

n-.’  W’‘§^-  '  •.:•  'H\vy  -  ,  • 

'■  ’‘%r 't'' ' '^ 

fe.  ^^9«i  ■,  '^'4'  i  ■  'f.  •‘♦jT ^ 

,  -«.wJ  ,■! 


t, ft tk: _-.•■»■. '  - 


'lejf'jB  '  ‘  '  .V.'ii'r-' .’ ’  .  I  ■  i«- . 


^  C-* .  ^ 


'  ,t 


4  **"*  7>y\^  ^  »  y* 


ffilBfi'I  JilT^S!»r  -.-a 

kX  -liiV  -:-3VA- 


»)III>^«I|.1M  XflM? 


. .  .(fel  '.'  '■''*  '■  '‘’  '  '■'  •’'  '<  '.'4‘V‘W'^!' fij"  : 


I  -  V  ■:T; 


’  '‘*, 


X 


>  <-* 
ii 


.A... . 


J-v  ^’v;--'  V  •,  \>\4‘  ■  •'■■'’ 

va«,yi\'4!ii-.  ••  '^A  *\  -V 

‘iv./^rr  n\, ■’  ■  i'^'  -'^  Vt:- 

■  -r»w»w-e.  i  - 1 


« 

'  '-  *> 


I'  wl  V 

I* 


^  k  } 
■»'  '■' 


4  .  L‘  I 


\ ' 


>  * 


.l>. 


J .  ■ » V 


-  .41.0,.. 

•  "'  C  5  '--■  ..  '. 


Ji'  ! 


Paulist 

Pamphlets 

Doctrine  —  Morals 
Devotion 

Biography — Ute  Saints 
— Miscellaneous 
Scripture  —  Fiction 


5e  each,  $3.60  per  100, 
$30.00  per  1,000 

All  orders  for  less  than 
$1.00  MUST  be  accom¬ 
panied  by  remittance 

Carriate  Extra  On  All 
Orders 

The  Paulist  Press 

401  West  59th  Street 
New  York,  N.  Y. 


FACE  THE  FACTSI 

SPECIAL  SERIES 

Ten  new  pamphlets  on  Catholic  Doctrine  with 
covers  in  seven  lovely  colors.  The  subject  matter 
is  splendid,  the  work  of  Rev.  Wilfred  Hurley, 
C.S.P.  The  paper  and  printing  are  excellent.  And 
the  covers  1  Well,  they  are  something  not  yet  seen 
on  pamphlets — original  paintings  reproduced  in 
seven  beautiful  colors. 

TITLES 
THERE  IS  A  GOD  I 
RELIGION  IS  REASON  ! 

THE  POPE  IS  INFALLIBLE  I 
HONOR  MARY  THY  MOTHER  1 
THE  CATHOLIC  CHURCH  AND  THE  BIBLE  I 
JESUS  CHRIST  GOD  AND  MAN  ! 

JESUS  LIVING  IN  THE  WORLD  TODAY  I 
SINS  ARE  FORGIVEN  IN  CONFESSION  I 
ONE  CHURCH  IS  NOT  AS  GOOD  AS  ANOTHER  I 

THE  CATHOLIC  CHURCH  IS  THE  CHURCH  OF 
CHRIST  I 

Size  ZYx-  X  6" 

5c  each.  $4.00  the  100.  $35.00  the  1.000 
carriage  extra 

Quantity  prices  apply  on  orders  for  assorted  titles 

Individual  Face  the  Facts  Package  60c  Postpaid 


Demands  a  Reading ! 


I  Believe  ! 

By  Rev.  Wilfred  G.  Hurley,  C.S.P. 

**This  is  an  admirable  synthesis  of  Catholic  apologetics,  and 
fills  for  the  rank  and  file  a  need  which  such  works  as  Het¬ 
tinger’s  Apologie  des  Chrhtenthums  have  long  fulfilled  for  the 
'learned/  I  Believe!  is  not  merely  an  explanation  of  individual, 
dissociated  points  of  dogma — extremely  useful  as  works  of 
this  type  are.  Rather  it  secs  forth  the  pattern — ^with  generous 
sections  of  the  tissue  and  fabric,  so  to  speak — of  Divine  Reve¬ 
lation  as  a  consistent,  coherent  unit,  the  only  satisfying  answer 
to  the  eternal  unrest  of  the  human  heart.  To  have  achieved 
this  within  the  compass  of  a  large-print,  208-page  book  in 
straightforward  'American,*  is  decidedly  a  feat  worthy  of  spe¬ 
cial  commendation.  Moreover,  it  meets  the  American  challenge 
to  'make  it  snappy*  by  brief,  incisive,  pointed  statement  with¬ 
out  a  trace  of  obscurity.  Neither  is  the  reader  repelled  by 
frigid  argumentation,  ^pious  historical  illustrations  and  apt 
analogies  make  the  assimilation  of  the  arguments  easier.  A 
book  like  this  must  undoubtedly  be  a  boon  to  convert-class 
instructors — and  for  all  those  who  have  anything  to  do  with 
ill-instructed  Catholics.** — T he  Messenger  of  the  Sacred  Heart. 

Paper  Cover:  50c,  $35.00  the  100  Cloth  Cover:  $1.00 

Postage  Extra 


Published  by 

THE  PAULIST  PRESS 

401  West  59th  Street  New  York,  N.  Y* 


